When hospitals turn profit makers, their patients are treated as commodities
Bengaluru, (Aryavarth). Foreign companies come to India only for the purpose of expanding business. As many foreign companies in the medical field in India, even the hospitals do not care about the lives of patients here, they do not even realize the pain of the victims. Their aim is to make money only by tricking Indian citizens.
On the complaint of our readers, we took this matter into consideration. Recently we came across one such incident which we shared with our other readers, how patients are being mentally tortured by the famous Columbia Asia Hospital. When we sought a response from the hospital administration about this incident, they directly refused to respond. Not only this, when we tried to contact the foreign owner of Columbia Asia Daniel R. Baty via email and asked him for a response on the business being run in the name of human services in India, we did not get any kind of response from him. Today, this incident needs to be taken seriously and the Central and State Government need to take some concrete steps on it.
Lets know the owner of Columbia Asia ?
Daniel R. Baty is a founder of Columbia Pacific Management, Inc., Columbia Pacific Advisors, Columbia Pacific Wealth Management and several of the world’s leading senior housing and international hospitals. He served as Chairman of Emeritus, one of the largest and most experienced operators of freestanding assisted living communities located throughout the United States, since its inception in 1993, until the company was sold in 2014 to Brookdale Senior Living. Mr. Baty also previously served as the Chairman of Holiday Retirement Corporation, the largest operator of retirement centers in the U.S. and Canada, from 1987 to its sale in 2007 to Fortress Investment Group for nearly $7 billion. He has been successfully investing in and developing private companies for over 40 years.
Foreign Investments in Medical Industry is solely to earn profit
As we all believe that Doctors are no less than God. But the daily incidents that we come across is no less than crime that is being continuously normalized by the doctors and hospital authorities. Hospitals like Columbia Asia who have invested in India on the sole purpose of earning profit are making no effort to ease the despair of Indian Patients. The truth is they don’t value the life of Indian patients. Even after so many incidents that have occurred and reported no action has been taken by the management. The paradox is even the Indian Government is silent on the issue, where its own citizens are being harassed and looted in the name of providing classy medical services by these foreign investors. The service charges are no less than International rates but services are below the mark of satisfactory.
Aryavarth’s valid questions remains unanswered
Last week we covered the story,published in our paper ‘Aryavarth Express’ and also posted on our website. We have received a number of responses who are concerned about the grim facts. Also a significant number of former patients who were unhappy with the terrible service of Columbia Asia got back to us sharing their experiences.They shared how they have been misbehaved with and inhumanely treated. This is unexpected from a hospital who boasts about its world class facilities. With exceeding numbers of unsatisfied patients that we are coming across each day we can only conclude that Columbia Asia does not care about its patients nor do they have the intention to correct themselves. They have found a place where their investments have always brought good returns and they will continue doing so. But we as responsible citizens will continue answering the misery faced by Indian patients. We tried to contact Mr Bety, owner of Columbia Asia to answer some of our questions. As we framed:
1) Do you have a standard protocol to deal with patients complaints and are the patients briefed about it?
2) How do you ensure that the hygiene standard is maintained for food, a dead fly was found in the fried rice served to the patient by your hospital?
3) Would the firm have acted the same way if this incident happened in the USA, The response was not correct in India, is your response guided by the colour of the skin and race?
4) Is there a hierarchy to escalate such complaints, when the local management wants to brush the issue under the carpet?
5) How many complaints about food and hygiene have you received in the last three years?
6) What action have you taken against your staff responsible for this incident?
7) How many patients were served fried rice that time, were all of them informed that a dead fly was found in the dish served to one of the patients?
The Aryavarth Express newspaper had asked Mr. Baty to answer these questions, but sadly, poor management ignored these questions as well.
What is the incident?
Sunita was advised to get the operation done as soon as possible after confirmation of kidney stone.Sunita’s husband Manas took her to the hospital in a hurry. Seeing Sunita at 102 degrees, the hospital nurse asked her husband to deposit around Rs 2500 for the first COVID-19 test. It was said on behalf of the hospital that the admission process can only start after payment of the deposit amount. Troubled by pain, Sunita continued to suffer for nearly two hours. According to information received from her husband, Sunita was asked to sit in a place where even a chair was not available. After hospitalization, the doctors kept her under observation for a few days and in the meantime all the required investigations were done. Meanwhile, on 4th May when Sunita was given watermelon juice in the hospital, she suddenly realized that the juice smelled rotten. Sunita vomited about five times after drinking this juice. After which she was injected to stop vomiting. The hospital staff did not give this information to the doctor investigating Sunita.
She then ordered a Vegetable fried rice from the hospital canteen. After eating about four – five spoons, Sunita found a dead fly in that fried rice. When she complained they not only denied to accept it but also added that it must have been outside food that was contaminated. After this incident Manas felt it better to bring home cooked food for Sunita. But a lot more harassment was yet to unfold. When he tried bringing home cooked food,he was stopped at the main gate of the hospital, informing that outside food was not allowed. He complained to the floor manager of the hospital about the misconduct being committed by the hospital staff. He told Manas that he was stopped at the gate because of the shift change of staff on duty at the main door. However, the floor manager flatly refused to take any written complaint about the incident. Not only this, when Manas gave information about the whole incident to our newspaper ‘Aryavarth Express’ the hospital staff started threatening him directly, calling Sunita’s operation as critical. They tried to rattle Manas saying that Sunita’s condition is critical and anything can happen during the operation.
Sunita remained hungry for almost two to three hours during all these incidents. Distraught with pain and starvation.With a 3 lakh bill being charged for the whole process of treatment , Manas was highly disappointed with the service of the hospital and regretted admitting his wife for the treatment. The hospital staff should take responsibility for this inhumane behaviour with Sunita and her family.
When the representative of our newspaper ‘Aryavarth Express’ wanted to talk to the hospital management about the inhuman treatment done to Sunita and her family by the Columbia Asia Hospital on receiving a complaint regarding this incident, they refused to speak and said that this is a personal matter of the hospital and no interference should be made in it. e They said that the hospital will try to handle it in its own way.
Not even sanitizer in hospital
When the newspaper ‘Aryavarth Express’’ representatives reached the Columbia Asia Hospital in Yeshwantpur to get information about this incident, they saw that sanitizers were not even kept in the reception of the hospital. It is known that in the guidelines given by the government to fight the coronavirus epidemic, it is clearly stated that from time to time, your hands should be sanitized. This can prevent corona infection.. It has been said that in places like hospitals where hundreds of patients come for examination every day, it is mandatory for everyone to use sanitizer. But these rules given by the government are not being taken care of in Columbia Asia Hospital. When our representative asked the staff for a sanitizer, he said that it is only for the hospital staff and is available with the nurse.
Government should take any concrete step against the hospital
Columbia Asia is one of the few private hospitals in the country where treatment is not only expensive but it is not possible to get easy recruited there. This is not the first incident when a victim has raised her voice against the Columbia Asia Hospital. In the past too, incidents of inhumane treatment of patients in Columbia Asia have been reported. But often such private hospitals use their sources and money to suppress such incidents. However despite many cases neither the state government nor the central government gave importance to these incidents nor any action was taken against these private hospitals. The central and state government should take such matters seriously for human security or the licenses of all private hospitals running and doing business in the name of human services should be canceled.
Note – All our readers are informed that if you have ever been treated in such inhumane manner by any private hospital in the city, or you have also suffered the misbehavior of the doctors, management or staff of the hospital. You can share your predicament through our newspaper. Do you know that with this little effort, in the coming days, other people will get information about the misconduct of such hospitals, which they often run under the guise of Service to humanity. Be sure to share your story with us, and trust that News Aryavarth Express will always stand with you in your fight. Your identity will be kept confidential. Contact us – editor@aryavarthnews.com